Communication technologies that link electronic devices in a networked fashion are well known. Examples of communication networks include wired packet data networks and wireless packet data networks. For instance, Wired Local Area Networks (wired LANs), e.g., Ethernets, are quite common and support communications between networked computers and other devices within a service area. Wired LANs also often link serviced devices to Wide Area Networks, the Internet and other broadband networks.
Wireless packet data networks include cellular telephone networks, wireless LANs (WLANs), and satellite communication networks, among others. Relatively common forms of WLANs are IEEE 802.11a networks, IEEE 802.11b networks, and IEEE 802.11g networks, referred to jointly as “IEEE 802.11 networks.” In a typical IEEE 802.11 network, a wired backbone couples to a plurality of Wireless Access Points (WAPs), each of which supports wireless communications with computers and other wireless terminals that include compatible wireless interfaces within a service area. The wired backbone couples the WAPs of the IEEE 802.11 network to other networks, both wired and/or wireless, and allows serviced wireless terminals to communicate with devices external to the IEEE 802.11 network.
WLANs provide significant advantages when servicing mobile devices such as portable computers, portable data terminals, and other devices that are not typically stationary and cannot access a wired LAN connection. WLANs are often deployed inside structures such as homes, offices and public and commercial buildings for networking with client mobile computers and other client mobile electronic devices. However, WLANs provide relatively low data rate service as compared to wired LANs, e.g., IEEE 802.3 networks. Currently deployed wired LANs provide up to one Gigabit/second bandwidth and relatively soon, wired LANs will commonly provide up to 10 Gigabit/second bandwidths. However, because of their advantages in servicing portable devices, WLANs are often deployed so that they support wireless communications in a service area that overlays with the service area of a wired LAN. In such installations, devices that are primarily stationary, e.g., desktop computers, couple to the wired LAN while devices that are primarily mobile, e.g., laptop computers, couple to the WLAN. The laptop computer, however, may also have a wired LAN connection that it uses when docked to obtain relatively higher bandwidth service.
The WAPs generally include a wireless broadband router and a broadband modem. A router, regardless of whether it is wireless or wired, distinguishes data packets according to network protocols and forward traffic according to network-level addresses utilizing information that the routers exchange among themselves to find the best path between network segments. As the status of routers change in the network, the routers exchange information to reroute traffic around congested or failed routers or to route traffic to a newly activated router. The wireless router also allows connectivity between mobile devices and the WLAN or between one wireless router and another wireless router. The broadband modem allows digital data traffic received from the router to be modulated into an analog signal suitable for transmission to a broadband network over a transmission media such as telephone lines, cable wires, optical fibers, or wireless radio frequencies. The broadband modem also re-converts analog signals received from the broadband network over the transmission medium back into digital data packets so that they can be forwarded to the router.
Regardless of the bandwidth that is available over a LAN or a WLAN, the bandwidth that is available from either type of network to and from a broadband network (e.g., the Internet) is normally established by a service provider such as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Typically, the available uplink bandwidth that is established from the LAN or WLAN and the broadband network is less than the downlink bandwidth from the broadband network and the LAN or WLAN, particularly in the case where the broadband network is a DLS network. Significantly, the uplink bandwidth to the broadband network is often substantially less than the bandwidth available over an 802.11 WLAN network.